Managing Crisis: an Overview of Challenges and Priorities for Public Managers and Leaders Facing Disasters

Traditionally, most of social scientifics who study operative/instrumental crisis management has shared the idea that this one does not include only the simple coordination and response to immediate consequences of disasters at their acute moments. It displays characteristics that are more complex and raises to the public authorities and “crisis managers” more exigencies than the simple reactive decision-making about coordination and mobilization of human resources. It is difficult to determine exactly the “crisis manager” profile as different to “crisis leader” profile. Among other reasons, it must be due to which both profiles can present such separate as simultaneous (Natera, 2001). Interdisciplinary works associated to “New Leadership” approach tend to come together into emphasis for marking difference between (true) leadership and (simple) management conceived this last one as “old” leadership (Natera and Vanaclocha, 2005). The managers/leaders distinction has its basis in elemental differentiation between leadership and authority. However, the classic formulation of leadership/management differences date from Zaleznik ́s contribution (1977), while Kotter’s contribution (1990; 2000) has reached great dissemination and approval in and out academic field. Kotter points out that leadership and management are two different “action systems”, although “complementary systems”, and he tends to share the idea that management deals to complexity in organizations, searching order, stability and coherence; whereas leadership deals to change through implementation of a vision into organizational reality. Scientific literature about crisis usually distinguishes, in a conventional way, different crisis management “phases” or dimensions that give account of this complexity. These dimensions represent important challenges for “crisis managers” and demand different operative capacities, as well as different management priorities (Table 1).